Jon Byers knew early on that his future lay in the automotive field.
“I got started doing models when I was 4,” he said.
But the future automotive paint specialist didn’t even get a chance to slap some paint on that first model, a 1/25-scale 1955 Chevrolet Nomad kit.
“My parents would only let me use glue at first,” Byers said.
That soon changed for Byers, however. By the time he graduated from Mount Rainier High School and headed off to the auto paint and body program at Renton Technical College, Byers was well acquainted with the ins and outs of paint.
After vocational school, Byers went to work for a local body shop. Although many car guys find their enjoyment under the hood, tinkering with engines, Byers found his in body work and paint.
In 1984, while working at a local body and paint shop he began doing side projects out of his garage, setting his feet on the path that would eventually lead to his shop, Byers Customs and Restorations.
“At that time it was mostly mini-trucks because that was the craze,” he said. “The very first flame job I ever got to do was my step-dad’s car. It was a ’78 Mercury Zephyr.”
He soon was perfecting his craft on relatives’ rides, painting an El Camino and Harley for his uncles and flaming out his own mini-truck.
“You train for this by just doing it,” Byers said. “At that time, I didn’t really have anyone to follow after. You’d go to the car shows and look at stuff and talk to a few people. But it was mainly trial and error. You get to mess up a lot of your own toys first.”
In 1990, Byers opened his first shop in Auburn, located off C Street near the airport. It was there that he first met fellow car customizer Craig Wick of Wicked Fabrications. For Byers and Wick, it was the beginning of a 20-plus year partnership.
“Craig does my mechanical and I do his paint and body, so it works out good,” Byers said.
Byers eventually moved into his own shop, nestled in a large warehouse next door to Wick’s shop on West Main Street.
In addition to his work with Wicked Fabrications, Byers said he also gets a lot work from Puyallup’s Dennison International and J and L Fabrication, both big players on the international custom car scene.
“We love doing the hot rod stuff,” Byers said. “And we really got into doing a lot of the Pebble Beach cars, the Pebble Beach Concour d’Elegance. It’s a big car show in California, very high-end cars. They’re all supposed to be non-production vehicles. So we’ve had one there every year since ’96, and each one has won its class.”
In 2008, Byers did even better, winning best of show at the Concour with the 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 B Touring Berlinetta, owned by Jon and Mary Shirley of Medina and restored by Dennison.
Byers is keeping busy, with his three shop employees and his bookkeeper and wife, Dawn, working on four or five projects at a time.
With paint costs running up to $1,400 per gallon, coupled with all the body work involved and the time it takes to match up old paint combinations, Byers said the price of a paint job can add up quickly.
Regardless of the amount of work his customers require, 48-year-old Byers is pleased to be able to make a living doing what he enjoys.
“You want to go into business working on fun things, and that’s what we do,” he said. “We work on toys.”
